An excerpt from NHL.com (John McGourty):
Together again.
Claude Julien coached Michael Ryder for three years in juniors with the Hull Olympiques (1997-00), one season with the AHL Hamilton Bulldogs (2002-03) and for parts of another two seasons with the Montreal Canadiens. During that span, Ryder scored 128 goals for Julien at Hull; 34 goals in his season in Hamilton and 55 goals in the two seasons they were together in Montreal.
Now they are hoping for more of the same with the Boston Bruins.
“He’s a sharpshooter,” Julien said Wednesday, in explaining why he lobbied General Manager Peter Chiarelli so hard to sign Ryder, A 28-year-old unrestricted free agent. Ryder, from Newfoundland, has scored 99 goals and added 108 assists in 314 NHL games.
He scored 30 goals in both 2005-06 and 2006-07, but fell out of favor with Canadiens coach Guy Carbonneau last season, when he played only 70 games and scored 14 goals.
“It was a tough year for me, stats-wise,” Ryder said. “The team did well and I was happy to be part of it. Now, I’ll get a chance to play for a team that shows confidence in me and trusts me to be on the ice when I need to be. I’m excited to be here and I can’t wait until the season begins.”
Habster:
I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Michael Ryder has a very good bounce back year (30+ goals season) playing with two very talented playmaking centers like Marc Savard and Patrice Bergeron. He’ll also get tons of powerplay time on the first unit.